They run because they can

Saturday

Apr 19, 2014 at 6:00 AM

By George Barnes TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

There will be plenty of talk about marathon heroes this weekend, and there are certainly many people to be admired.

With potentially 36,000 taking part in the Boston Marathon, I try to focus locally. Last year when the bombs exploded, more than 350 Central Massachusetts runners were on the course or had just finished. Many were from such clubs as the Central Mass Striders and the North Medford Club. In the race were Jonathan Miganowicz and Joe DiMucci from my hometown of Templeton.

I will be cheering for all of them, and especially thinking about Sandy Gittlen of Grafton, Steve and Carissa Penney of Gardner and former Gardner resident Sarah Goldstein. Each is running for a set of reasons only they completely understand. They are not running because it is easy, but for the joy, the fun, and because they can.

Sandy was in her first marathon last year in Boston. She is not an elite runner, but she is determined. When the bombs went off, she was headed up what is known as Heartbreak Hill. She reached the top of the hill, about five miles from the finish, and was told she had to stop; the race was over.

Steve and Carissa were running pretty well as they neared the 25-mile mark. They finished 25.5 of the 26.2 miles before they were stopped.

Sarah, who now lives in Boston, ran the BAA 5K the day before the 2013 marathon. After the bombings, she decided she had to do more.

I first met Sandy in 2011 at the Slattery's Thanksgiving Race. We both ran in the middle of the pack and were happy with our finishes. For Sandy, it was just the beginning. She kept running, focusing on getting better and better. At some point, she set a goal of running a marathon. She took the goal seriously, doing all the difficult things needed to get there. She put her heart and soul into the effort.

On April 15, 2013, Sandy ran the toughest part of the Boston Marathon: The more than 20 miles from Hopkinton to the outskirts of Boston. She said things were going absolutely wonderful as she headed up Heartbreak Hill in Newton.

"It was one of those amazing days you hope to have," she said.

As she topped the hill, it was over. Her joy ended in shock and confusion. After she was stopped, she waited with her sister for a while and finally headed home, her goal denied.

Coming so close but not completing the marathon could easily have crushed Sandy. Instead, it made her more determined. She kept running, entered and finished the Marine Corps Marathon in the fall and kept a focus on returning to Boston.

When they were stopped, Steve and Carissa Penney were so close to finishing, it was hard to imagine they could not just will their way to the finish line. But it might as well have been 1,000 miles. Steve is a veteran runner and was looking to complete his 10th marathon, a milestone made even more meaningful because his daughter was running her first.

Running a marathon is never routine, but Steve knew what it felt like to finish one of the world's most celebrated races. He was looking forward to sharing that feeling with Carissa. On Monday, he will still be looking to complete his 10th marathon and will again be looking to sharing Carissa's first. When that happens, the joy will be at least as great as it would have been last year.

Sarah Goldstein has never run a marathon, not even close. This year, for herself and her city, she will try.

The bombs that ended the 2013 Boston marathon will forever color that race. People will remember it as the year of the tragedy. It would be difficult to think otherwise. Three people died, and many were badly injured.

But hopefully, what people will see this year will not be a race marred by tragedy, but streets filled with runners determined to finish what they started, for the joy, the fun and just because they can.

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